Its Coastal Stone whisky brand launches with the Elements Series, comprising five whiskies aged in different casks: sherry, pinot noir, port, bourbon, and shiraz. The name Coastal Stone is designed to reflect the Manly Spirits Co. distillery's location by the sea in Sydney, where the whiskies for the Elements Series have been maturing in maritime air for five years.
The shaved and re-charred casks used to age the whisky for the Elements Series expressions were all first fill, which Manly Spirits Co. says has led to a range of "robustly flavoured and complex" whiskies. The Elements Series bottles are designed to reflect the sandstone cliffs of Sydney's coastline, even featuring genuine Sydney sandstone stoppers.
“We didn’t think it was possible to be able to use real Sydney sandstone on the stopper – in fact, we were told it wasn’t possible,” says Vanessa Wilton, co-founder of Manly Spirits Co. and designer of Coastal Stone. “But we’ve never shied away from a challenge here at Manly Spirits. Those finer details of the bottle design, stopper, label – it’s all important to us."
Founded in 2017 by Wilton and partner David Whittaker, Manly Spirits Co. was the first distillery to be built on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The distillery's grain-to-glass spirits are produced exclusively from grain grown and malted in Australia, and are fermented for at least five days before being double distilled.
Whittaker, also the distiller at Manly Spirits Co., said: “It has been a true passion since my 20s to create whisky that embraces our home turf and uses techniques of fermenting well-learnt from our surrounding craft brewing industry. Adding a barrel selection policy mastered from the Scots with an Australian way of pushing tradition slightly aside, we have been able to create a premium Australian whisky that reflects our artisan way of doing things."
The Coastal Stone Elements Series will be available at specialist retailers including Master of Malt, The Whisky Exchange and The Whisky Shop.